In 2024, Bulgaria has 15,737 foreign students, making up 8.6% of all current students in the country. By comparison, this share has doubled over the past decade. This data comes from NACID , updated annually in the Bulgarian University Ranking System, Open Society writes in an analysis. In 2024, almost 9,000 foreign students come from countries outside the European Union (EU), while nearly 7,000 are from EU member countries.

The majority of foreign students come from Greece (20%), followed by the United Kingdom (14%) and Ukraine (11%) in third place. Medicine and dental medicine are the fields preferred by foreign students.

The cities in Bulgaria with the highest number of foreign students largely mirror those with the most students overall, namely Sofia, Plovdiv, and Varna. However, due to the strong preference of foreign students for medical majors, the next cities on the list are Stara Zagora and Pleven, where there are medical universities. Another city with a significant number of foreign students is Blagoevgrad, home to the American University and the College of Tourism, the analysis reads